Level 2 Award in Food Safety in Catering
The Level 2 award in Food Safety in Catering is targeted at food handlers in catering. A food handler is any person, in any type of food business, who handles food. The food can be open or packaged and includes drinks and ice.
This award is also ideally suited to people who need to enter food premises as part of their work, eg. Equipment maintenance engineers; business owners/managers and delivery personnel. The aim of this qualification is to provide a basic knowledge of food hygiene.
Level 2 Award in Food Safety in Catering
Description
The Level 2 Award in Food Safety in Catering is a qualification that covers the basic principles of food hygiene for caterers and other food handlers. It is valuable as a free-standing qualification or as an addition for people following other training programmes. Holders of qualifications based on this specification will have a knowledge and understanding of; the importance of food hygiene, associated food hazards, good hygiene practice and controls based upon an awareness of food safety management systems. These topics are regarded by the Food Standards Agency as being important to understanding and maintaining good practice in the handling, processing and preparation of safe food.
Summary of Outcomes:
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Understand how individuals can take personal responsibility for food safety, by being able to:
Outline the importance of food safety procedures, risk assessment, safe food handling and behaviour; Describe how to report food safety hazards; Outline the legal responsibilities of food handlers and food business operators.
Understand the importance of keeping him/herself clean and hygienic, by being able to:
Explain the importance of personal hygiene in food safety including its role in reducing the risk of contamination
Describe effective personal hygiene practices, for example, protective clothing, hand washing, personal illnesses, cuts and wounds.
Understand the importance of keeping the work areas clean and hygienic, by being able to:
Explain how to keep the work area and equipment clean and tidy to include cleaning and disinfection methods, safe use and storage of cleaning chemicals and materials and waste disposal; State how work flow, work surfaces and equipment can reduce contamination risks and aid cleaning; Outline the importance of pest control.
Understand the importance of keeping food safe, by being able to:
State the sources and risks to food safety from contamination and cross contamination to include microbial, chemical, physical and allergenic hazards: Explain how to deal with food spoilage including recognition, reporting and disposal; Describe safe food handling practices and procedures for storing, preparing, cooking, chilling, reheating, holding, serving and transporting food; Explain the importance of temperature controls when storing, preparing, cooking, chilling, reheating, holding, serving and transporting food; Describe stock control procedures including deliveries, storage, date marking and stock rotation.
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Content:
How to take personal responsibility for food safety
Importance of food safety procedures: Definition of food poisoning; causes of food poisoning; incidence of food poisoning; common symptoms; at-risk groups; effect of poor food safety to food businesses; role and importance of food safety management systems in reducing the risk of food poisoning by identifying and controlling food safety hazards; outline of food safety systems such as Assured Safe Catering, Safer Food Better Business and HACCP.
How to report food safety hazards: Importance of reporting possible food safety hazards to supervisors and/or managers (to include faulty equipment, food at incorrect temperature, out-of-date stock, presence of pests); importance of record keeping; what records should be kept; frequency of recording and monitoring (to include cleaning schedules, food deliveries and the temperature of chillers, refrigerators, freezers, store rooms, ovens and hot-holding facilities).
Legal responsibilities: Legal responsibilities of food businesses and food handlers; importance of the 2005 legislation (EC Directive 852/2004 ‘Hygiene of foodstuffs’): The Food Hygiene (England) Regulations 2006, The Food Hygiene (Scotland) Regulations 2006, The Food Hygiene (Wales) Regulations 2006, The Food Hygiene (Northern Ireland) Regulations 2006 or any superseding legislation; requirements for hazard analysis and food hygiene training; outline of legal sanctions and role of environmental health officers.Importance of keeping clean and hygienic
Importance of personal hygiene in food safety: Food handlers as sources of, and vehicles for, food poisoning bacteria; risk to food safety due to poor personal hygiene and practices; how good personal hygiene reduces the risk of contaminating food with bacteria. Personal hygiene practices: Purpose and types of protective clothing; design features of protective clothing to reduce the risk of contamination; importance of keeping protective clothing clean and in good condition; risk to food safety from jewellery and accessories; required standard of personal hygiene; role of the hands in transferring bacteria to food; importance of effective hand-washing practices; occasions when hands should be washed; risk to food safety of food handlers suffering from stomach upsets and other illnesses and infections; the need to report such illnesses to supervisors and/or managers; risk to food safety from cuts and wounds; need to use appropriate dressings; need to report cuts and wounds to supervisors and/or managers.
Importance of keeping the working areas clean and hygienic
How to keep the work area and equipment clean and tidy: Definitions and examples of “clean-as-you-go”, “scheduled cleaning”, “cleaning in place” and “cleaning out of place”; uses of cleaning and disinfection chemicals; cleaning procedures for premises, equipment and utensils; importance of using appropriate cleaning materials; importance of waste disposal; methods for waste disposal; frequency of waste disposal; cleaning and location of waste bins. Work flow, work surfaces and equipment: Need for work surfaces, floors, walls, sinks and equipment to be constructed of appropriate materials, in order to aid cleaning, resist wear and damage and reduce the risk of contamination; possible food safety hazard of damaged surfaces and equipment; how the design and layout of kitchens and food rooms can affect hygiene standards; importance of work flow in a kitchen; standard of services and facilities. Pest control: Control of pests such as rats, mice, cockroaches, flies, birds; conditions favourable to attracting pests; signs of pest infestation; contamination of food and surfaces by pests; preventing access to pests; removal of pests.
Importance of keeping food safe
Sources and risks to food safety from contamination and cross contamination: Biological, chemical, physical and allergenic hazards to food safety; role of microorganisms in food poisoning; growth requirements of microorganisms; high risk foods; importance of toxins and spores; sources of food poisoning bacteria; examples of chemical and physical hazards and allergens; how these hazards get into food; contamination and cross-contamination; contamination vehicles such as hands, cloths and equipment, hand contact surfaces, food contact surfaces; contamination routes; procedures for reducing the food safety risk from allergens. Food spoilage: Spoilage of food by bacteria and moulds; appearance of spoiled food; reporting procedures and disposal of spoiled food. Safe food handling practices and procedures: Importance of thorough cooking of food and keeping prepared food out of the "Temperature Danger Zone"; destruction of bacterial toxins and spores; maintaining hot or cold temperatures; reheating, cooling and thawing food; use of microwave ovens; refrigerating and freezing; prevention of contamination and cross-contamination; correct use of heated trolleys, cupboards and food service counters; correct use of chillers and chilled food service counters; holding times and temperatures for different foods; prevention of contamination and cross contamination during the holding and serving of food.Importance of temperature controls: Range of „The Temperature Danger Zone‟ and its importance to bacterial growth; checking food temperature during cooking, reheating, holding and serving; importance of temperature control for high risk foods; correct temperatures for the storage of different foods; appropriate temperatures for refrigerators, freezers, chillers and store rooms; maintenance, monitoring and recording of these temperatures. Stock control procedures: Importance of checking deliveries of food to ensure that the food is undamaged, at the correct temperature and within its use by date; storage of canned and dry food; use of refrigerators and freezers for storing food; date marking of food (use by and best before dates); need to safely dispose of food that has exceeded its use by date; importance of stock rotation; risk of contamination and cross-contamination during food storage; importance of keeping food storage areas clean and tidy; preparation of food for storage; separation of raw and ready-to-eat foods.
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Assessment:
Attainment of the Learning Outcomes will be assessed by a multiple-choice examination. A candidate who is able to satisfy the learning outcomes will be awarded a score of at least 20/30 in the examination. The multiple choice examination is provided by The Society. The examination consists of 30 questions. The duration of the examination is forty minutes.
